Forum gallery - copyright?

[Mick2011 · Accepted solution]

No, in effect it amounts to permission to use the image on Sony webspace. You'll get the same thing on most sites offering this kind of service.

According to the Sony website T&C, by uploading images you grant Sony a "perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, and non-exclusive right and license to use" them. As this is the same as a publisher buying your images on a standard royalty-free basis, you do retain copyright over them; in this case your 'license to use' permits the publisher (Sony) to host your copyrighted work on their site.

'Non-exclusive' is the key phrase in answering your question: as the copyright owner, you remain free to sell your images to another publisher or do as you please with them, just as you did before you uploaded them. Be aware that by granting a non-exclusive license, you obviously give up the right to provide an exclusive license to another publisher.

I suppose you should also be aware that the T&C require that you waive all 'moral' rights to the images. The most important part of moral rights is the right to be personally identified with your work, ie have a by-line or credit wherever the images appear on the site.

Site owners often require this condition for page layout reasons, but in the case of the Sony Gallery you even get your name displayed when you hover over the image thumbnail, as well as on the full-size image, from where you get a link to a profile page with contact details etc...so the moral rights issue is maybe not a concern.

Also goes to show how 'standard' these waivers and conditions actually are

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Mick